: Giving news broadcast rights to private FM radio operators and community radio stations run by NGOs will be an open invitation for anti-national and radical elements located “within the country” to propagate their vested interests and agenda to the masses, the government told the Supreme Court.
An affidavit filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court favoured news on radio to continue to be the “exclusive preserve” of the national broadcaster Prasar Bharati’s All India Radio (AIR).
Handing over the rights to private FM operators and community radio stations run by NGOs and “other small organisations” will pose a national security risk, the government said. There is no mechanism to monitor content put out by them, it added.
There are 281 private FM channels in 84 cities. Though the government had permitted 519 organisations to operate community radio stations in India, only 201 organisations have actually operationalised them.
“Unfettered freedom to community radio and private FM radio operators in putting out news bulletins and/or current affairs programmes may be detrimental to national interest and it may be prudent to allow community radio operators to only broadcast AIR’s news,” the government submitted.
The government was responding to the Supreme Court on the prohibition on FM radio stations and community radios from airing their own news and current affairs bulletins.
